The Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation has finally decided to act! Responding to a court order on a PIL and an ensuing contempt case initiated by the petitioner on the same PIL, the corporation has started removing illegal advertisement hoardings from the city.

The PIL was filed by Alok Kumar, president of Federation of Apartment Owners Association (FedAOA), in 2014. In response to the PIL, the court directed the municipal commissioner to initiate action on illegal public ads — be it political, commercial or religious. However, the court’s order brought little action and the petitioner had to file a follow-up contempt petition in 2015.

In response to the contempt case, the court expressed dissatisfaction at the inaction of the civic body and granted it one more opportunity to act on the issue.

The corporation, responded to the petitioner’s queries, said that the work of removing illegal hoardings, posters, ad-banners from public places has already started.

Speaking to City Spidey, Kumar said that he had approached the court since illegal ads not only defaced public property, but also covered up important road signs and direction boards.

“There’s not a single electricity or streetlight pole in the city which does not have some kind of advertising board stuck to it. All these advertisements — large or small — are generally political, commercial or religious in nature. Although residents have become used to such boards, it makes the city look ugly and also misleads people. In some cases, these boards have covered up important public signboards,” he complained.

In the letter to Kumar, the corporation claimed to have removed 106 unipoles, 121 hoardings, 189 ad kiosks, 25 cantilevers, 36 ad lollipops, 88 boards and 24 banners over a period of almost two months from various locations across the city.

Kumar, however, maintained that the ground situation is way different from the facts on paper. He further said that the civic body must put in stringent efforts to rid the city of the problem.